


Swamp Gas

by Baklavalamp



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Gen, Liz and Patty have a rough past, My AU's version of ATLA s2 e4 "The Swamp", There’s another major character here but also technically not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25136968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baklavalamp/pseuds/Baklavalamp
Summary: On their way to the Northern Air Temple, a trip through a mysterious swamp opens old wounds and raises new questions for Team Avatar. ATLA AU
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Swamp Gas

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! This little one-shot sets the stage for my next multi-chapter fic, which I hope to post soon. Real life is back on my case, but I've already got some of it written out, so hopefully I can start posting it soon!
> 
> This is my AU's version of ATLA Book 2, Episode 4, "The Swamp." I tried to give Liz and Patty a little more love here as well. It gets kind of angsty, but please enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or Avatar: the Last Airbender

_Sss…. squap!_

_Sss… squap!_

_Sss… squap!_

"This is so gross," Liz moans. Her complaint is the first bit of speaking any of them have done since reaching the outskirts of this swamp.

"We should be through the worst of it soon," Kid tries to placate her, not taking his eyes off the path ahead of them. _Sss…_ His boot sinks into the thick, black mud as he takes another step forward.

 _Squap!_ Beside him, Patty wrenches her own leg out of the tarry goo. "It's so squishy!" she giggles, plunging it back down.

"Stop, stop, you're flinging it everywhere!" Liz squeals, flinging her arms up to guard her face. Kid grimaces at the blackish-brown flecks now splattering his clothes.

"Oops! Sorry," Patty smiles innocently. For the next few minutes she treads much more lightly, but it isn't long before she's back to stomping. Such is the pattern they've been following since they reached this awful place. Kid just hopes they make it to the other side soon.

The trio continues on like this for some time, dodging vines and swatting bugs as they stumble through the muck. Kid wonders how long they've been at it now; the trees have grown too dense to see the sky. It's a strange thing, really; ever since they'd left Marie's village a week ago, each day of travel before this has only brought them to drier, colder places. Where did this swamp come from?

A shriek from Liz interrupts that thought. Whirling around, Kid finds the older girl clutching her own arm in a death grip. A large, brown something dangles from her elbow.

"Elbow leech!" Patty cheers, pointing at the creature.

"Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff," Liz chants, straining as far away from her own appendage as physically possible.

"Hold on," Kid says, stumbling over to her. He scans the surface of the mud as he goes. There! Plucking a good-sized stick from the goo, he comes up beside Liz, brandishing it. Face contorted in disgust, he bats at the leech's head, trying to make it let go. Mercifully, it isn't stubborn, and a few swift hits are all it takes to drop the thing back into the mud.

"Eeeew!" Liz is on the verge of tears, hurrying further down the path to get away from where it landed. Kid is quick to join her, his eyes fixed on where the leech fell. He can't see it anymore, but that doesn't reassure him. Trailing along, Patty laughs gleefully at both of them.

"It's like suika-wari!" she says, prompting another grossed-out noise from her sister.

"Please don't say that," Liz begs.

"It's not, though," Kid points out to the shorter blonde. "It wasn't on the ground, and my eyes weren't covered."

"I bet it'd still get juice everywhere if you hit it right, though."

"Enough!" Liz cries, clasping her hands over her ears. "Let's talk about something less disgusting."

"Okay!" chirps Patty. Her face screws up in thoughtful concentration as she picks her brain for a more acceptable topic. "Hmm… I wonder how it thinks you tasted."

"Stop talking about the leech!" Liz howls, and Patty descends into another fit of laughter. Kid shakes his head, trying to hide his grin from the older Thompson Sister; he's learned the hard way that no one, not even the Avatar, laughs at Liz and gets away with it. Still, he wonders how someone who's spent the majority of her life in slums and alleyways can be so squeamish. Maybe it's just-

Kid stops.

Liz and Patty, now deep into a conversation about watermelons, don't notice at first. They keep powering forward through the mud, oblivious to the way Kid peers cautiously into the trees. However, the loss of a third pair of noisy footsteps soon becomes apparent, and the sisters turn around.

"Kid?" Liz calls back to him. "What's up?"

"Did you hear that?" Kid asks, still looking around at the dense vegetation surrounding them.

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard someone," Kid squints into the darkness. "Like… someone was trying to get our attention."

"What, like someone further ahead?" Liz asks, trying to see for herself where the voice could have come from.

"I don't think so," Kid tells her. "It came from somewhere in the trees." At least, he assumes; really, it seems to come from everywhere at once, mingling with the bird calls and the droning buzz of insects. Come, it says. Come here. It gives him goosebumps. "I think it wants us to follow it."

"And now I am officially done with this place," Liz declares, taking Patty by the wrist and tugging her forward. "We're leaving. Now." Kid is happy to oblige, and picks up his pace to match the girls. The trio lapses back into silence as they focus on getting through the swamp as quickly as possible.

What was that? Kid wonders. The more he thinks about it, the less sure he is that the voice belonged to a person at all. But then, where had it come from? And why did it tell him to go deeper into the swamp? _Maybe it was just my imagination..._

Unfortunately, between Kid's pondering and Liz's overwhelming desire to escape the swamp, no one notices the long, green vines slithering towards them from behind. At least, not until each of them has one lashed around their waist.

Kid yelps in shock as he's abruptly yanked off his feet. Liz and Patty cry out as they find themselves in similar positions, just before each of them is pulled into the jungle like a fish on a hook.

* * *

The trees whip by as Kid is tugged backwards, trying in vain to shield himself from the bite of branches and leaves. Though the wind makes his eyes water, he can make out his surroundings just well enough to see that Liz and Patty aren't with him.

Finally, his chaotic flight ends. The vine drops him unceremoniously in the mud before retreating into the darkness. Shaken, all Kid can do at first in crouch there, trembling. What in the name of the spirits was that?! It seems as though whatever called out to him earlier hadn't taken kindly to being ignored.

Once a few minutes have passed and no other crazy, impossible things have happened, Kid staggers to his feet. If he'd been dirty before, he's an absolute mess now; he's covered almost head to toe in mud, leaves, and broken twigs. Shoving down the fit this would normally cause, he forces himself to focus on the situation at hand.

It seems as though the vine has pulled him fairly deep into the swamp, judging by the dense thicket of plant life surrounding him on all sides. He wonders if it's done the same thing to Liz and Patty. Are they alright? Did they stay together, or are they alone, like him?

Well, there's only one way to find out, he tells himself, and begins weaving his way through the trees. He has no idea where he's going, but he figures the swamp will push him where it wants him to go. His only hope is that he'll find the sisters along the way.

* * *

"Patty! Patty!" Liz shouts, her voice echoing back to her. "Kid?"

Still no response. It shouldn't be a surprise; she's been at this ever since that crazy plant-monster thing dropped her- a few minutes ago, at least- and is yet to hear anything back. But it's only now that Liz gives up, falling silent as she wraps her arms around herself fearfully.

 _Don't panic_ , she coaches herself. _Deep breaths_. They can't have gone far. But what if they have? What if her poor little sister is stranded somewhere miles away, waiting for 'Sis' to come find her? The thought makes Liz's heart clench painfully. And what about Kid?

"Focus," she says aloud, smacking the sides of her face. If there's anything her life on the street has taught her, it's that you can't let your imagination run away with you. _Patty's fine. Kid's fine. I just have to find them._

Once she's collected herself, she straightens, trying to force a confident, almost bored expression onto her face. Street lesson number two: fake it 'til you make it. Trudging forward through the mud, she resigns herself to the search.

Fortunately, it doesn't take as long as she'd feared; not ten minutes after setting out, she sees someone in the distance, their figure largely obscured by leaves.

"Patty!" Liz shouts, trying to get the figure's attention. It's too tall to be Kid. Pushing through a curtain of moisture-laden branches, however, it's not Patty that Liz is greeted by. Instead, an old, bearded man appears before her, his fancy clothes wildly out of place in their mud-drenched surroundings. Who's this?! Where did he come from? The man looks over when she arrives, but when their eyes meet, his face contorts in panic.

"You!" he cries, stumbling backward. In his haste to get away, he slips, landing on his back in the mud. Huh? Liz steps forward, baffled, but the man curls into a ball as she does. "Stay away! I've given you everything, I swear! Please, leave me alone!"

"What are you-," Liz starts, but then it hits her. His clothes, his face, she's seen them before! This is the first person she ever mugged, back when she and Patty first ran away from home. But what in the world is he doing here? She reaches towards him, trying to sound comforting. "Hey, look, I'm not gonna-,"

"Nooooo..." the man quails, burying his head in his arms. Liz pulls her hand back, eyes wide. Is he really this afraid of her?

 _It's not like I really hurt him or anything,_ she thinks, recalling when she'd robbed the man. Back then, she hadn't let Patty take part in the muggings, so it'd just been her and her knife. _And I let him go right after! He was fine!_ But the terrified figure on the ground begs to differ.

"Please, leave me alone," he begs once more, and then Liz sees it: a small collection of thin, red lines decorating the man's throat. Souvenirs from a blade held just close enough to terrify. _I did that,_ Liz realizes. _Me_.

And then there's bile rising in her throat, and she's running away as fast as her legs will carry her.

* * *

The noises her feet make as she staggers through the swamp aren't funny anymore, Patty thinks. Not when there's no one else there to be grossed out by them.

When she'd landed in a muddy clearing and realized Kid and Liz were gone, Patty had immediately set out in search of them. Though she'd recalled her sister's advice about getting lost- how staying put can help others find you- sitting around while her friends could be in trouble just hadn't felt right.

Patty walks and walks and walks, her surroundings a mess of green and brown. She tries to keep track of anything that could serve as a landmark, but the plant life blurs together after a while. It frustrates her, knowing that she could be going in circles. She's almost ready to reconsider staying put when she sees a flash of gold through the vines.

"Sis?" Patty calls, rushing after it. She pushes her way through a dense tangle of trees before the owner of that rich blonde hair becomes visible. However, when they do, Patty's jaw goes slack in shock.

"Mom?!" she gasps, voice barely above a whisper. The woman standing in the clearing- her mother- looks down at her, slate-blue eyes cold.

"What are you doing here?" she growls. It takes a moment for Patty to find her voice.

"Traveling," she manages. Her memories of the woman before her are dim, but she can still recall the long, cold nights spent huddled with Liz under threadbare sheets, loud laughter drifting up from the floor below them as their mother wined and dined some sleazy official. What is she doing here, in a place like this?

"No, you stupid child," the woman snaps. "What are you doing here? Why are you here?!"

"I… I," Patty stutters, trying to understand. The woman shakes her head, her face like stone.

"You were always the slow one, weren't you? Clinging to me, to Elizabeth. Burdening us," she intones, like a judge passing sentence on a guilty man. "That's all you really know how to do."

"Shut up!" Patty shouts, anger flaring in her chest. It doesn't burn though- her fear, born alongside it, is too cold for that.

"Patty?!" a new voice joins the fray. A wonderfully familiar voice.

"Liz!" Patty cries, jumping a little as her elder sister stumbles through the vegetation. Her face is pale, almost white, but it's the most beautiful thing Patty's seen in a long time. Racing towards her, away from this awful ghost of their past, the younger girl leaps into her sister's outstretched arms.

"I'm here," Liz assures her, petting her hair like she's always done. "It's okay, it's- what's wrong?!" Patty has begun to sob into her sister's shoulder. Beyond speech at the moment, she points one trembling finger back towards where their mother had been. However, instead of shock and anger, Liz's reaction is one of confusion. "Is something there? Are you hurt?!" Frantically, Liz pulls back, looking Patty up and down for any sign of injury. Patty shakes her head though, and pushes back into the older girl's arms.

"Mom was here," she chokes, and feels Liz's hold tighten. "She… she said I was… she called me a burden."

"Patty, Patty listen to me," Liz says, and Patty looks up at her through watery eyes. "That woman is nothing. She exists to make people miserable. Nothing she says, none of it, is worth a damn. But you know what? If it weren't for you, I'd still be stuck with her." Patty's eyes widen at this.

"What?" she gasps, uncomprehending.

"You're the reason I was able to run away, Patty. You're the reason I didn't just lie down and accept a life with her. Because of you, I had a reason to want better. You are not a burden; you keep me going." By now, Liz is crying as well, and for a few minutes, all the Thompson sisters can do is hold each other.

Finally, Patty draws in a ragged breath. "I love you, Sis," she says, giving her sister a watery smile.

"I love you too," says Liz, doing her best to return it. Taking a deep breath of her own, she manages to compose herself. "I think this swamp is doing something to our heads," she tells Patty, her voice stronger now. "Making us see things that aren't really there."

"You saw someone too?" Patty asks, surprised. Liz looks away.

"Sort of… just some guy I met once. No big deal," she claims. "We've just got to find Kid and get out of here, the sooner the better." Patty frowns, suspicious of her sister's sudden nonchalance, but Liz just waves her forward. "Come on, let's go this way." For now, Patty obeys, but she's sure Liz knows this isn't over. Kid now, talk later, she decides, and follows her sister into the trees.

* * *

Kid feels as though he's been walking for ages. Of course, given how the towering trees hide the sun and sky from him so completely, it may well have been just a few minutes since he'd left that clearing. He doubts that, though.

He wonders how Liz and Patty are doing. He has no idea how large this swamp actually is, but it could stretch on for miles, which worries him; it could be quite some time before they all find each other. And this is without factoring in the swamp itself, which appears to have a will of its own. Will it try to keep them apart? For that matter, why had it separated them in the first place? That strange voice from earlier had wanted him to go deeper into the swamp, so maybe this is its way of making sure that happens.

Part of Kid entertains the notion of asking the swamp directly. It can obviously communicate, after all, so maybe it can just tell him what it wants? In the end, though, he decides against it, partially because he'd feel silly interrogating plants but mostly because he assumes that if it could do that, it probably would have already.

Just as he's resigning himself in frustration to an indefinitely-long search, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He stops walking, looking around. This is the same feeling he had when the swamp first spoke to him!

"Hello?" he calls out, his head on a swivel. In response, giggling floats down to him from above. He cranes his head back sharply, and is startled by the sight of a girl perched atop a high tree branch. She's peering down at him, her grin impish. "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Kid apologizes, but the girl doesn't respond. Kid frowns. What's going on?

His expression apparently invites more laughter from the girl, who stands up from her careful crouch. Kid's jaw drops when, in one graceful leap, she springs from her branch and onto another one several feet away. From there, she leaps again, and again, until Kid realizes he's going to lose sight of her if he doesn't start running.

"Wait!" he shouts, arm outstretched desperately. Splashing through mud puddles and tripping over tree roots, Kid races after the mysterious girl. She practically flies through the trees, a blur of yellow and red cutting through the green. Air nomad colors, Kid realizes belatedly. She's an airbender! His curiosity burning, Kid quickens his pace, fighting to keep her in sight. Fortunately for him, no matter how many times he stumbles, he never quite loses her. It's as though she's pacing herself, deliberately moving slowly enough for him to follow. Is she guiding him somewhere, then? Can it be to whatever the swamp wants to show him?

Just as Kid is wondering how far this chase will go, the girl finally hops down from the trees. Her fall is gentle and slow, like the air itself is cushioning her. She lands soundlessly a good ten feet in front of him.

Gasping for air, Kid comes to a less graceful stop, doubled over with his hands on his knees. _Who knew being the Avatar would involve so much running?_ he muses dryly. Once little sparks no longer dance at the corners of his vision, he straightens and takes his first good look at the mysterious girl.

As he'd suspected, she wears a brightly-colored jumpsuit, the kind synonymous with young Air Nomads. Her blonde hair, done up in pigtails, blends with the yellows and oranges, but her green eyes stand out. She looks to be about the same age as him.

"Who are you?" Kid asks. The girl merely smiles.

Before he can try to question her further, there's a loud rustling behind him. He turns in time to see Liz and Patty stumble out of the undergrowth, each in a state of disarray that mirrors his own. Kid's face breaks into a relieved smile. "Hey!" he calls, waving his arms.

"Oh, thank Agni!" Liz exclaims when she sees him. "Alright, now we can leave!"

"I-," Kid starts, and moves to introduce them to the girl, but finds himself gesturing to empty air. The Air Nomad girl has vanished. "Huh?" He looks up at the trees, wondering if she's hid herself there, but can't find any trace of her.

"-get out of here and never come back," Liz is saying, oblivious to Kid's shock. "This place is too freaky for me!"

"What's wrong?" Patty asks, tilting her head curiously. She and Liz both sport a number of bruises and scrapes, but aside from that, they seem unharmed. It's a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

"I saw a girl," Kid tells her. "An airbender, I think. She led me here."

"Oh no, not you too," Liz moans. "I can't take much more of this creepy stuff."

"I saw our mother," Patty explains, noticing the confusion on Kid's face. "Before I met up with Liz." Kid doesn't quite know what to say to that. From what little of their past the sisters have shared with him so far, he's learned that their mother was… less than ideal, to put it lightly. "Who did you see?" Patty asks, sparing him an awkward response.

"I'm not sure," he admits. "I didn't recognize her."

"You saw someone you didn't know?" Liz asks.

"I think so," Kid nods. "Why, who did you see?" At this, Liz looks away, crossing her arms.

"No one," she says. Kid's brow furrows, but he decides to leave it be for now. She'll tell him when she's ready.

"Let's just focus on getting out of here," he suggests, and the sisters nod eagerly. After a few moments of glancing around and failing to tell where they are, the trio finally just picks a direction and starts walking. For once, however, luck appears to be on their side; they haven't been walking for long before the ground dries up, the trees thin out, and the deep blue sky is visible once again.

"We did it!" Patty cheers, throwing her arms in the air.

"Oh, dirt, I'll never complain about you ever again," Liz promises, staring lovingly down at the solid earth beneath their feet.

"That was quick," Kid notes, surprised. Not that he's complaining, of course. It had just seemed like they'd been a lot further in than that. What's more, Kid has a feeling that they're now north of the swamp, opposite where they'd gone in, even though the flat plains around them look just the same as the southern ones. "But how-,"

"Don't start!" Liz cuts him off. "Let's just all forget this whole thing ever happened, alright? Please, I already feel like I'm going nuts."

"...fair enough," Kid concedes.

"Thank you."

"Sis, look!" Patty speaks up now, and Liz turns to see her sister pacing a muddy circle on the ground. "I can see my footprints!" Seeing this, Liz looks down at herself and makes a disgusted sound, finally realizing just how filthy she is.

"Kid," she pleads. "Heat some water for us, okay?"

"Way ahead of you," Kid assures her, already anticipating a hot bath. The mystery of the swamp, and that girl, will just have to wait.

* * *

That night, with their bodies and clothes finally scrubbed clean, the trio collapses into their bedrolls. Patty is asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow, and neither Liz nor Kid are far behind her. Just before he closes his eyes, however, Kid casts tired eyes on the elder Thompson sister.

"I'm glad you're both alright," he murmurs. There's silence for a few beats; perhaps Liz is asleep already. Shutting his own eyes, Kid prepares to do the same.

"...You too," comes a quiet response, drifting over from the direction of Liz's bedroll. Kid smiles, and then exhaustion claims him.


End file.
